Felipe Cifuentes Velásquez

Abstract

On the basis of Mikhail Bakhtin’s account of carnivalization in literature, this paper interprets Langston Hughes’s poem “Ask Your Mama: Twelve Moods for Jazz” as a carnivalized critique of racial segregation in American cities in the first half of the twentieth century and the failure of cultural citizenship. For this purpose, the cultural influences of the poem are characterized as the sources for the carnivalistic expressions in it and the contribution of these expressions to the construction of a carnivalistic point of view are analyzed. The paper concludes that the poem simultaneously denounces racial issues and exalts the vitality of African American culture as an advantage in the political confrontation against racism.

Keywords

carnivalization, Langston Hughes, jazz, blues, The Dozens, twentieth century African American poetry

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